Are you interested in a tool-based self-defense activity? If so, Boxing Club may align with your swagger. Boxing Club meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4 – 6 p.m. at P.E Complex’s Racquetball Court 4. 

Tuesdays are designated for intermediate boxing enthusiasts, and Thursdays are reserved for the much more novice and curious boxing aficionados.

The club’s goal is teaching students to wear boxing gloves, so then they can learn how to throw punches on punching bags, and learn how to avoid punches from opponents, while exhausting the opponents from their failed punches.

The Boxing Club provides a variety of equipment for their members. Boxing gloves and punching bags are just the surface.

Speed bags are a unique piece of equipment that looks like a small sack that hangs at head-height, and it allows the puncher to punch very quickly with a quick return to the initial position. Speed bags require the puncher to punch in very rapid succession upwards of 60 punches per second. 

When punched in quick succession, the speed bags look as if they are vibrating back and forth swiftly. Allowing the puncher to train and improve the strength and speed of their punches.

Jalin Hare, age 22, an undergraduate music education student and boxing enthusiast, offers words of wisdom on the platform of boxing to inspire other students to join in the fun and perform the art. 

He has loved and enjoyed participating in combat sports, such as boxing, judo and jiu-jitsu, but he has desires to escalate his experience to the level of teaching and mentoring other enthusiastic and combative students.

Hare started playing combat sports in high school by joining the school’s wrestling team. Now that he is in college with some combat experience under his belt, he wants to share his passion with other people and be more than just a participant.

Photo credits by Ananth Prabhu

Photo caption: Jalin Hare is demonstrating punches on a conventional body-sized punching bag.

Hard sparring is when two people embrace each other like an actual fight. Participants end up throwing punches and blocking punches. 

 According to Hare, it “feels like playing on a jungle gym” and the feeling of playfulness “feels lost as we get older.” 

He refers to it as “playful rough housing” just like the familiar expression of ‘boys will be boys.’ It sounds as if it is a great stress-reliever to get in touch with one’s inner-child.

 It can surely have the additional benefit of anger management by releasing any built-up anger that one may have.

One of Hare’s favorite boxing moves is called a ‘lunging left hook.’ This maneuver is when a rival lunges his/her body forward towards the competitor, and the left hand makes a loop around to hit the competitor’s right side. It sounds very much like a ‘curveball,’ for those of you who are familiar with baseball terminology.

Photo credits by Ananth Prabhu

Photo caption: Jalin Hare is demonstrating the lunging left hook on a punching dummy.

When asked about designing an official boxing ring on campus, Hare stated that it is quite expensive “in the thousands.”

 He then admitted that there are some unofficial plans to build a make-shift boxing ring in the club’s designated boxing room if funds can be allocated towards it.

If any of the aforementioned activities caught your attention, then it is definitely worth stopping by the Boxing Club’s official meeting times to learn and practice some boxing moves.